Farewell to arms: Higgins Armory Museum mounts final exhibit

With its final exhibit, "Knight to Remember" is the glorious last stand of Worcester's Higgins Armory Museum.

By Chris Bergeron/Daily News staff

Milford Daily News

By Chris Bergeron/Daily News staff

Posted Oct. 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Oct 20, 2013 at 8:11 PM

By Chris Bergeron/Daily News staff

Posted Oct. 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Oct 20, 2013 at 8:11 PM

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Like the Spartans at Thermopylae, staffers at the Higgins Armory Museum are battling to the end.

On a warm Tuesday morning, education interpreter Andy Volpe led a class of eighth-graders through the Worcester museum’s spacious galleries, pointing out life-sized models of mounted knights wearing medieval armor and a wealth of weapons wielded on battlefields from Agincourt to Gettysburg.

An artist and Roman legionary re-enactor, he shepherded the students from Burncoat Middle School through the Great Hall where flags and heraldic banners hung from the 30-foot-high vaulted ceiling.

Students like Emileyskka Ramos nudged classmates, pointing out daggers, broadswords, rapiers and a cavalry saber forged in the U.S.

"I’ve never seen weapons like these,’’ said the 14-year-old who said she’d like to have been a knight if she’d lived five centuries ago. "You really get an idea about how these people lived.’’

Education Director Devon Kurtz checked out "Knight to Remember,’’ the Higgins’ final exhibition which he organized to celebrate the legacy of museum founder John Woodman Higgins.

Using photographs and some artifacts, he chronicled the life of the Worcester industrialist who as a youngster was so "enchanted with stories of knights and chivalry’’ that as an adult he acquired the largest private collection of ancient arms and armor in the Western Hemisphere.

After the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Higgins collection of arms and armor is considered second largest in the U.S.

"It’s a bittersweet time,’’ said Kurtz. "I wanted this exhibit to be a place for past and present visitors to come to and share their memories and say goodbye.’’ Visitors can send memories of earlier visits to memories@higgins.org.

And Suzanne Maas, interim executive director, has been overseeing "a full program of events and activities’’ for three more months until the museum finally closes its doors on Dec. 31 after 83 years.

As the Higgins prepares to transfer its collection of 2,000 objects to the Worcester Art Museum, staffers are still organizing overnight stays and birthday parties for young visitors, a Haunted Higgins Halloween party, special Veterans Day events and regular demonstrations of the fighting techniques of Vikings, Celtic warriors and, of course, the Medieval knights who fascinated the founder.

"In our remaining time, we want children and visitors of all ages to experience our collection in the setting John Higgins designed,’’ said Maas. "We’re finding people want to come back and reconnect with their memories of a unique institution.’’

After several years of deliberation, Higgins trustees announced earlier this year the museum would have to close and transfer its collection because its $1.5 million endowment was insufficient to maintain the aging steel and glass Art Deco building constructed in 1931.

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"One of the positives is the trustees didn’t let it spin out of control. They found time to locate a partner and found a great new home for the Higgins collection,’’ said Maas. "It’s a testament to everyone involved that they were able to deliver 83 years of history without a sustainable business model.’’

As the final exhibit reveals, Woodman – like the armor and arms he loved – exemplified the virtues of an earlier era.

Archival photos show the suits of armor he placed in his factory to inspire workers. Another shows him wearing one of the only suits of armor big enough to accommodate his 6-foot-tall frame.

Born in 1874 and raised in Worcester, he graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and, following his father into industry, founded with him in 1905 the Worcester Pressed Steel Company that financed his collection and museum.

Higgins urged his factory workers to consider themselves artisans performing valuable labor for a growing nation. He told them, "Machines can not put art into an object, only hands and hearts can.’’

Higgins bought his first suit of armor on a 1920 trip to Europe with his wife, Clara, in the early years of a marriage that lasted more than 40 years and produced three children.

As his collection grew too large to keep in his house and factory, Woodman hired Boston architect Joseph D. Leland to design the four-story steel and glass building with its high-ceilinged interior that evokes the great halls, castles and cathedrals of the medieval past.

"Higgins wanted it to look like a steel-and-glass castle on the outside,’’ said Kurtz, "and a medieval castle on the inside.’’

Just as armored knights went out of fashion around 1640 because their suits could no longer withstand the advanced technology of firearms, Higgins’ once cutting-edge building couldn’t be maintained by available funds.

On Saturday, Nov. 16, the museum will host "A Knight to Remember," an evening gala to celebrate Higgins’ and his museum. Tickets range from $45 to $70 for VIPs. For information, call 508-853-6015 or visit www.higgins.org/farewell.

With the collection apparently heading to the Worcester Art Museum, Maas is now working to determine what will become of Higgins’ once signature building.

She concedes there’s little hope for "an angel,’’ a corporate benefactor who’d provide the necessary $15 million to preserve the aging building so the Higgins can remain in its original home.

Maas said she’s deeply moved by the staff’s determination "to give guests an extraordinary experience’’ even as they face uncertain futures.

"Until Dec. 31 at 4 p.m., we’re striving to deliver exceptional programming to visitors up to the very last minute,’’ said Mass. "The staff realizes it’s ending but they keep doing their jobs.’’